Look to the Future
by Bware0313
Summary: It has been over a year since Harry has defeated Voldemort, since then he has gotten a new house, and begun a career as an auror. However, it is time for him to make another crucial decision.


Ginny stood in front of her mirror in her bedroom at the Burrow. She usually wasn't one to put on makeup or curl her hair, but Harry had invited her to dinner at a fancy Muggle restaurant, and she didn't want to look out of place.

Ginny walked downstairs and entered the sitting room to find Ron and Hermione cuddled next to the fireplace. At the sound of her arrival, Ron turned to look at her, and much to Ginny's pleasure, his eyes widened at the sight of her.

"Woah Gin… Going somewhere?" asked her older brother.

"Yeah, Harry and I are going out to dinner."

"Lucky you… I wish Ronald here would take a leaf out of Harry's book." said Hermione.

Ron gave Hermione a glare as she erupted into a fit of giggles.

Ginny rolled her eyes and bid her brother and best friend goodbye. It had been just over a year since Harry had defeated Voldemort. She couldn't have been prouder of his actions since then. In his shoes, many people would have jumped out of the picture and lived a quiet, boring life. That just wasn't Harry. Shortly after Voldemort's defeat, Harry had announced (much to Ginny's immediate displeasure) that he would not be returning to Hogwarts for his final year. He had accepted Kingsley Shacklebolts offer to join the Auror department, and without any training at all, he had passed the Auror exams. Harry had been very active in rounding up scattered Death Eaters. The Aurors were thrilled to have him join up. It helped that the Death Eaters were scared out of their wits of him. Upon sight of Harry, many Death Eaters would simply fall to their knees, drop their wands, and beg Harry for mercy.

Ginny walked into the kitchen to find her mother setting the table for dinner. Harry had asked her to dinner just that afternoon, and her mother had already begun cooking the meal. Upon meeting her mothers fury, Ron had saved her and got Hermione to drop in.

"Ginny dear, are you on your way then?" Mollie asked

"Yes mum."

"What time will you be home?"

"Actually mum, I'm staying the night at Harry's."

Her mother gave her a glare, but did not restart the argument. It was common knowledge to Molly and Arthur that Ginny had her own bedroom in Harry's two bedroom flat. After being back at the burrow for the summer after the war, Harry had decided having a place of his own was becoming necessary. However, he did not wish to return to Grimmauld Place. He had put it up on the market and was surprised when he had gotten an offer on the place within a week. He was even more surprised by identity of the buyer. The offer had been very generous. He had gone to finalize the deal and was genuinely surprised to find Narcissa Malfoy seated across from him, pen in hand.

Soon after having sold Grimmauld Place, Harry quickly found a two bedroom flat just across the street from the Leaky Cauldron, and bought it for just a fraction of what he had gotten for Sirius's old home. Ginny had helped him furnish the flat, and he bought whatever her heart desired for her bedroom. It was just an act of course, she never slept there, but there was no way her parents would have let her spend the night without the existence of the room.

"Ok dear. You two be careful."

"Bye mum."

Ginny stepped into the fireplace and was soon whisked away from the burrow. She came to rest in Harry's fireplace, but could not yet see anything of the inside of the flat.

"Name?" a curt voice prompted her.

"Ginny Weasley" she replied.

"What did Harry Potter say to you when you awoke in his presence in the Chamber of Secrets?"

"It's all right. Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the Basilisk."

The wall in front of her melted away, revealing Harry's sitting room. This was just one of the defenses that Harry had set up around his little home. No one could get into his house via the floo without answering a question that only the one individual would know. She had no idea how Harry had bewitched this 'wall.' It had never asked her the same question twice. It also recognized when someone gave a false name, as Ron had figured out last summer, much to Harry's amusement.

The flat was also Unplottable, had an anti apparition ward on the interior of the house, and was under the Fidelius Charm with Harry as the secret keeper. Harry had even bewitched the flat so that House Elves could not Apparate within the walls, of course with the exception of Kreacher. Harry had even ordered the elf not to side along anybody into the house unless there was an emergency. Harry was taking no chances with rogue Death Eaters, despite their fear of him. Also, the charms kept out the press and unwanted publicity. Ginny couldn't deny, Harry had set up the perfect location for them.

She stepped out of the fireplace to see Harry fast asleep on his sofa. She was momentarily flustered that she had gone through so much effort to get ready for the evening, and he was fast asleep still in his Auror's robes, with his hair matted down.

She stepped towards with him and poked him in the side with her wand. Harry grunted, and rolled over. Ginny sighed. Perhaps another reason for the flats defenses was that he didn't wake up even when he was at wand point. She leaned towards him and softly kissed him. Soon, in his grogginess he was kissing her back. Ginny then slowly retracted the kiss as Harry's lips attempted to follow. Finally, he woke to find himself nearly standing up.

"You're bloody cruel, you know that?" Harry said playfully.

"No, cruel would be inviting your girlfriend to dinner at a fancy restaurant and then napping the afternoon away in your work clothes, all the while looking like a messy git."

Harry's face fell.

"Well, if you want, I could just have Kreacher whip us up something just as good. Unless you wanted a night out in London."

Ginny smiled. A candlelit dinner in his kitchen was just as, if not more romantic than some cheesy fancy restaurant.

"I would love that Harry" she breathed.

"Kreacher" Harry called.

"Yes, Master Harry?" Kreacher replied, appearing out of thin air.

"Does Master Harry and Mistress Ginny require Kreacher?" he prompted hopefully.

"Yes Kreacher, if you wouldn't mind, would you please fix dinner for us?" asked Harry.

Kreacher looked at Ginny's attire and turned back to Harry.

"Certainly, Master Harry. Kreacher will rise to the occasion. Kreacher will also bring out the good candlesticks."

If Ginny wasn't mistaken, the elf had winked at him. Harry smiled at his elf as Kreacher went back into the kitchen.

"So love, how was the tryout today?" he asked.

Ginny smiled. Today had been her tryout with the Holyhead Harpies.

"Well, it's not official yet, but Jones left me feeling very hopeful."

"That's brilliant love! Unless you don't make it, but if that's the case don't worry about it. I mean, it is an all witches team."

Ginny saw the twinkle in his eyes and knew that he was kidding, but couldn't resist playing back.

She glanced into the kitchen and saw his wand on the counter.

"Tut tut Potter. You let down your guard" Ginny said as she raised her wand.

She sent a nonverbal jinx at Harry. To her surprise, the jinx bounced away from him. Ginny gaped at him. With a flick of his wrist, Ginny felt her wand forcefully pulled out of her hand as her foot was wrenched upwards towards the ceiling.

Ginny knew that he had been training himself in wandless magic, but she didn't know that he was this far along.

"No love. You let your guard down."

Harry was laughing to himself as he circled her. She was wearing a lowcut dress, and was doing all she could to keep gravity from revealing herself.

"I think its time for me to demonstrate the one thing that Voldemort did teach me."

Ginny raised her eyebrows at him, and Harry laughed at how the expression looked upside down.

"That would be the art of torture, love."

Ginny gave up trying to prevent her dress from showing her bottom half and crossed her arms while she glared at him.

With another flick of his wrist, Harry wordlessly and wandlessly cast Rictusempra.

Ginny laughed uncontrollably and twisted in midair as the charm worked her sides and under arms.

"HARRY … PLEASE … STOP!" she pleaded.

Harry laughed and released the charm.

Suddenly Ginny was falling towards the ground. She closed her eyes and shielded her head with her arms, but a few seconds later opened her eyes to see the ground still a foot below her. She looked at Harry and realized that he had wandlessly cast a levitation charm. She began gliding through the air and was placed right side up on the sofa. She sat there and pouted, looking at Harry.

"You arse."

Harry smiled. "Now love, let's not be angry."

"OH! I'll be ang…"

She had been cutoff as Harry's lips met her own. As they began moving against hers, she felt her anger ebbing away. After kissing him every day since the end of the war, every kiss was still as fresh and new as it had been that night in the Gryffindor Common Room so long ago.

As the kiss died off, she felt Harry's lips pull away. She however, kept her eyes closed, hoping that his lips would come back to finish the job. She finally gave in and opened her eyes. She was not prepared to see the sight before her.

At her feet, Harry was resting on one knee with a small box in his hand. As he saw her eyes open, he took a slow deep breath.

"Ginny. I love you with all my heart. I have known for some time now that you are the one I am to be with for the rest of my life. I fought a war for you Ginny, for us, for our future. So that perhaps our children will be born into a safer world, where they can be happy. As I open my eyes every morning, you are my first conscious thought and as I fall asleep at night, you are the last thing I think of. If the war has taught me one thing, it is that life is much to short, and I don't intend on wasting any of it by not being with you. Ginny, will you marry me?"

Ginny looked into his brilliant emerald eyes. She was surprised by what she saw there. In place of his usual confidence, she saw uncertainty. Was he afraid that she would say no? She realized that she held his heart just as much as he held her own.

"Of course I will…" she breathed.

He smiled brilliantly at her and slipped the gorgeous solitaire diamond ring onto her finger. She leapt into his arms and hugged him like she had never hugged him before. She pulled back and smiled at him. Harry pulled back laughing.

"What?" she asked.

"Your make up… it's running."

Ginny hadn't even realized that she had been crying. She looked down at his coffee table and saw another box there.

"What's in there?" she prompted.

"Oh… Well… I'll show you" Harry picked up the box and opened it, revealing two thin gold bands.

Ginny laughed at him.

"You not only bought my wedding ring already, but you bought your own? I thought that was my job?"

Ginny quickly fell silent at the look upon his face.

"These were my parents'…" he muttered.

"Oh Harry… how did you get these?"

"Sirius had them in his vault. In my parents will, they had left them to me, but entrusted him to hold them until I was old enough. I found them last month, with these two letters."

Ginny took the first one. It was a note from Sirius.

_Harry,  
Your parents entrusted these to me until the time came for you to give them to the love of your life. As of now, I am putting them in my vault for the time being, incase I don't outlive this war. Since my entire vault is entrusted to you in my will, I am certain these will end up in your hands.  
Give them hell kiddo.  
Sirius  
_  
She looked up to see Harry re-reading the other letter with tears in his eyes. She knew who this letter would be from. He slowly handed it to her.

_Our Dearest Harry,  
We write you this as we go into hiding. Dumbledore seems fairly certain that we are safe for the time being, but just in case something goes wrong, we want you to have these. Your father and I bonded these rings on our wedding day. If something should happen to us, we would like for you to bond these rings again with the love of your life. Just know that we are ever so proud of you, and that we wish we could meet her. We are sure that she will be beautiful and wonderful. As you live your life with her, remember us and remember the past, but also look to the future. Allow the past to guide you to what you want to become. Never forget who you are. You are our son. Our Harry.  
We love you,  
Mum and Dad_

She felt the tears silently cascade down her cheeks as she realized that these are the only words that Harry has left from those loved ones who had departed him.

"Gin… if it doesn't bother you… I would like to fulfill their wish…"

Ginny looked into his eyes, his mothers eyes.

"I wouldn't dream of doing it any other way."


End file.
